Wim Vanhaverbeke on Open Innovation success at ICMIT2014

ESADE professor Wim Vanhaverbeke has delivered today one of the main keynote speeches at the 7th IEEE International Conference on Management of Innovation and Technology (ICMIT2014). His talk has touched upon the highly relevant (and enduring) management problems companies face when implementing Open Innovation.

While the benefits of Open Innovation (OI) are well understood by practitioners and academics, many companies still fail to implement it. The root cause of this phenomenon is that firms are required to change their strategy and internal organizational structure and processes to collaborate successfully with innovation partners. Consequently, many organizations are reaching out to external partners without the necessary internal organization and management.

In addition to being highly relevant in practice, the theme also commands further research. To date, the management problems companies face when implementing OI have been insufficiently documented in the academic literature, where accounts remain few.

Given all these facts, my keynote will focus on how companies can be optimally prepared to implement Open Innovation successfully. Not surprisingly, this exercise requires a number of actions that that need to reinforce each other. Stressing an earlier point: I feel it is remarkable that the existing literature has not formulated yet clear guidelines on how companies should manage OI. Hence, my presentation will focus on 10 critical points of attention:

Connecting OI to a firm’s strategy

The role of organizational culture and top management

Developing new organizational processes and structures that support OI

The need to align Open Innovation and Human Resource Management

The changing role of the R&D department

Developing new IP-strategies aligned to the objectives of OI

The need to develop an OI team; its role and structure

Making effective use of OI services providers and innomediaries

Evaluating the success of OI activities. What are the right KPIs and what are appropriate metrics and reporting for OI?

How companies can move from closed to Open Innovation

The 7th IEEE International Conference on Management of Innovation and Technology (ICMIT2014) is being held in Singapore between the 23rd and 25th of September 2014. On this occasion, ICMIT2014 has invited scholars and practitioners to come together and share the latest developments in the field of innovation and technology management.

Welcome

Welcome to the ESADE Institute for Innovation and Knowledge Management Blog.
We are a cross-disciplinary team dedicated to understanding the creation of knowledge and innovation.
Through this blog we’ll share information and thoughts in order to better understand the new innovation systems.
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Jonathan Wareham,
Head of Institute for Innovation and Knowledge Management